Cuba and the Night

by Pico Iyer

Having captivated readers with such gems of travel writing as Video Night in Kathmandu, Pico Iyer now presents a novel whose central character is another the melancholy, ebullient, and dazzlingly inconsistent island that is Castro's Cuba. "On almost every page you can smell the dust, the cheap perfume and the rum of Havana today, or better still, tonight."--Los Angeles Times.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Travel, Fiction

239 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist of Indian descent. As an acclaimed travel writer, he began his career documenting a neglected aspect of travel -- the sometimes surreal disconnect between local tradition and imported global pop culture. Since then, he has written ten books, exploring also the cultural consequences of isolation, whether writing about the exiled spiritual leaders of Tibet or the embargoed society of Cuba.

Iyer’s latest focus is on yet another overlooked aspect of travel: how can it help us regain our sense of stillness and focus in a world where our devices and digital networks increasing distract us? As he says: "Almost everybody I know has this sense of overdosing on information and getting dizzy living at post-human speeds. Nearly everybody I know does something to try to remove herself to clear her head and to have enough time and space to think. ... All of us instinctively feel that something inside us is crying out for more spaciousness and stillness to offset the exhilarations of this movement and the fun and diversion of the modern world."

Reviews

[dianne b. · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Luego, después del rayo y el fuego, tendré tiempo de sufrir”

When one is stuck, even a beautiful island can be a prison.

Cuba is a place curiously alive, with history, with frustration, with music, and possibility always possibility. It is a bit addictive. I have spent time there - three lengthy trips over 5 years. It is a place where there may be no vegetables for weeks, but always, it seems, there is rum.

I once wondered why so many Habaneras sit on the Malecon and look inwards, towards the land, when most of the world gazes out across the sea? I learned they can not stand the ache of imagining what is out there - beyond the waves.

Maybe we all feel a little Cuban now that we are stuck in our tiny islands, with no possibility of escape. All of our imaginings tempered by a new virus, we are forced to look inward, to explore what is behind us. To wait.

Iyer has written an allegorical story of Cuba.
Gorgeous, alive with no where to go; everyone eager for something else.
A love story, sort of, where one of the two is sure that his options will always give him the winning hand; unable to see beyond his tepid selfishness, he assumes he will always have time.

“Everyone was dressed up, it seemed, though no one was going anywhere; the whole island was just jiving in place, like an old man setting his memories to music.” says our photographer narrator, unable to see that his filters, his lenses, his editing are disguising the true picture. Especially of himself.

[Orion]

This is a delightfully insightful look at life in communist Cuba and also a love story between an international photojournalist and a young Cuban woman. Told in the first person from the photographer's point of view, we slowly see the complexities of Cuban life unfold as he becomes more involved with this woman and her life in Cuba. The contrasts between the needs of men and women in relationships, and capitalism and communism, are well presented. Although written during the early 1990s, the portrayal of life in Cuba and the Cuban people was still valid when I read the book in 2003.

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pico Iyer is a journalist, but this book of fiction about modern day Cuba captures the energy, heat and struggles of those living on the island in a unique way. It's a great read!

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me forever to finish this book. Being Cuban-American, I always gravitate toward fictional stories based in or about Cuba. This was no exception. It was set in the 80’s, during the days of the Cold War and Reagan. The story is mostly narrated from the viewpoint of a journalistic photographer who travels the world following political issues and wars and whatnot. As you can predict, the formula is tried and true: the typical, can’t-settle-down American photographer falls in love with the pretty Cuban girl.

The author actually weaves the story well but it just drags on… My husband told me to just give up on it but I actually was compelled to finish it, I just wasn’t compelled to finish it quickly. It didn’t help that the book really doesn’t have chapters but rather long sections so it is hard to get to a good stopping point.

The book itself is not that big but for whatever reason, it took me several months to get through. I guess the reading just got tedious, not because of the language but because the main character just re-hashes his emotions and rationalizes everything. It gets old after a while. One more complaint – I never feel like I get to know any of the characters despite all the pages written focusing on them. Maybe that is the point… I don’t know. I am just so middle of the road on whether or not I’d recommend this book so there you go… I guess I’m ambivalent.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

A weakly plotted romantic story showcases Iyer's skills as a travel writer and demonstrates that writing travelogues and writing fiction are two different things.

The portraits of the Cubans and their night life are vibrant and sad and those of the foreigners, including the author's first person personae, are stereotypical. The foreigners do not seem to be fully conscious of nor appreciative of the risks their new Cuban friends area taking to associate with them.

The romance is so poorly drawn, we cannot tell why the writer loves (or is obsessed with) Lourdes. Once plans are made, the outcome is predictable.

The descriptions of Cuban night life, attitude and passion are wonderful. The text is shaded with poetry from Jose Marti, the ubiquitous sloganeering and talk of the ever-present Fidel. You can see the aging buildings and autos, you feel like you are waiting too. Without this color, it would be a two (or maybe one) star book.

For a better Cuban travelogue, with a real love story, I recommend Es Cuba: Life and Love on an Illegal Island

[M.Y. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before (and after) my trip to Havana in 2000, I read as many books about contemporary Cuba as possible. This is one of my faves.

[Aditya · Rating 4 out of 5]

thoroughly enjoyed it. Travellogue NOIR! what a genre.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super atmospheric work. Havana and Cuba are really the main characters in the novel. Written in 1994, I wonder if things are as portrayed in the work. From the perspective of the novel,most Cubans have nothing and rely on tourists to provide them with dollars, food, clothing and are all jockeying to get something or someone to get things for them. I really enjoyed reading this book. Very much a page turner.

[Cecilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best Pico Iyer. I didnt' really get into it. Probably because I don't really understand what the big fuss about Cuba was about.

This book was only memorable because I had to explain what it was about to some hard-core chinese brain-washed Commie's son, who had no idea why someone like me from Hong kong would read about what's his name that runs Cuba.

That was until I explained that I was not reading it for Cuba. I was reading it for Pico Iyer AND the way he totally trashed the stupid white sleazoid guys from the 1st world who came to exploit 1st to 3rd world economic differences to "buy themselves" hot Cuban Supermodels!

That made the Commie's son, who was sorta my friend by then because he was not like his stupid parents, wanted to borrow it. But like any good HOng kong girl...I told him there was no need to borrow, he can have this "book that was forbidden and banned in china for its inappropriate anti-communist content" if he paid for dinner AND gave me massive 80% discount next time I visited anything run by his Daddy. He laughed and went,"But of course, there is no need to even mention it!"

See, how traditional chinese cultural values cut across communist moronic crap! hahaa.

:) See, it all works out well when you just don't take Communism seriously!

So I liked this book because I had some really good meals out of it...one was lobster pasta! Yum!\

www.ceciliayu.com

[Vladimir · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I read this book before I went to Cuba - I would have known so much more about everyday life people have there. But all in all, it was nice to experience Cuba through book like this, after the visit. It was so overwhelming, surprising and stunning - the same feeling I had while I was on Cuba.

It is very well written, story keeps person stuck to it and it is a little bit unusual. I'm just not much of a fan when it comes to love novels, so I can't say more.

But I liked how he pictured Cuba in the background of the life of two people, similar to one how Russian classic novelist did. The book is full of characters, lots of diversity and human interaction, lots of happy and bad fates. It is really good book and I really enjoyed reading it.

I would recommend this book to anybody who plans to go to Cuba, it is really close to how Cuba is. I was feeling like walking the streets again, and in same moment I was being sad cause I didn't have a chance to see some of the places described in the book, because I already left Cuba.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pico Ayer is well known as a travel writer, however, this is a novel well informed by the time Ayer has spent in Cuba. I probably picked this up due to this year’s Cuba-US diplomatic rapprochement. The narrator is a globe trotting professional photographer who comes to Cuba to decompress. There is a love affair that can end in only two ways: marriage and the precious exit visa for the bride or abandonment. What’s particularly striking in the novel is all the men and women the narrator meets who are all on the mark or the grift, all trying to get something that Castro’s regime denies them. They are items are trivial as kitchen supplies or clothing all the way up to the exit visa. Ayer wrote this in the late 1990s but even with the political changes in Cuba my guess is that these same needs and desires continue to motivate young Cubans.

[Lianne]

Here is another novel I sought out in preparation for a discussion about changing American foreign policy with Cuba. First published in 1995, the novel provides an atmospheric portrait of Castro’s Cuba in the early 1990’s. Richard, a jaded journalist is smitten with a ravishing cubana named Lourdes. Iyer explores the gulf between their worlds. The journalist wonders if he is being used as a ticket of her escape to the outside world. At the same time, Lourdes fears she may only be Richard’s idealized souvenir memoir and he cannot ever truly understand her. The novel is set in the difficult days after the fall of the Soviet Union when there is major scarcity and everyone is struggling to survive.

[Matthew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm still halfway through, but this book is unfolding like a long, dramatic, sad, nostalgic sigh. (Thats meant to be a positive description...) It reminds me of first-time falling in love, although it is romance of a rather juvenile, sex-enhanced type, though set in the very worldly context of Castro's Cuba.

Months later:
Ok I'm dropping my rating by a star... never actually finished this book, though I peeked to the end to find out what happened. The protagonist, a Western journalist in Cuba, just got kinda tedious, though his lover, a local Cuban girl, was sweet. I'm glad she didn't end up with him.

[Maria Maniaci · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Pico Iyer's nonfiction. I guess I don't love his fiction. This book... didn't know what the heck it wanted to be. Was it supposed to be a romance? Plot devices abound. The author seems a bit in love with his vita. But my main issue was that it was, page after page, overly polemical to the detriment of what isn't exactly a plot.

I might've just limped away quietly at the end, but the ending was such an incredible cop-out. Grrr.

That said, I'd be willing to try another of Iyer's novels, because his non-fiction is really _that_ good and this was a first attempt.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pico Iyer is not someone I associated with novels dealing with affairs of the human heart, so I was surprised when I came across this in the second-hand bookstore.

His evocation of Havana was effective; his development of characters and attempts to probe their interior lives failed miserably. Given his talent to write well about place, he should probably stick to non-fiction.

Pico Iyer remains someone I do not associate with novels dealing with affairs of the human heart.

[Supriya Manot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy reading Pico Iyer's travel articles and this work of fiction didn't disappoint either. He brings you in the middle of glorious Cuba's beauty and pathos and giving you a peak inside the protagonist's thoughts. By the end, you want it to be over as well as don't want it to end. Very few can manage that!

[Marisa James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Pico Iyer's nonfiction. "The Lady and the Monk" is one of my favorite books, and his travel writing is always a delight. This is the second novel of Iyer's that I've read, and I found both disappointing. Maybe fiction can never be quite as compelling as reality, especially for someone who has seen so much of the world.

[Chris Dunlap · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was awesome to go see the places in Havana described in the book as I was reading it. I thought Iyer's story took a long time to unfold, but the main character had flaws that came back to bite him in entirely sensible and plausible ways. I'd have given it 3.5 stars 10 pages before the end, but upped it to 4 rather than rounding down to 3.

[Zeke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pico Iyer is a great travel writer--he knows how to capture those liminal moments when you forget what time zone you're in. This book is at it's best when he sticks to creating evocative atmosphere. The rest of the book--trite, gender-normative plot, weak characters--I could do without.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another in my frequent forays into Cuba via the pages. I really want to go there.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely worth reading while you are in Havana or just back, don't bother if you are not going to Cuba.

[Gwilym · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this about five years ago when on a long holiday in Australia. I recall enjoying it!

[James E. Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

vividly written but slow in plot. Good portrait of an obsessive attraction and unhealthy character without slipping into cliche. Ending was predictable, but well done.

[Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book very much. The author is primarily a travel writer, so the depiction of Cuba was excellent and evocative. A romantic expatriate story in the tradition of Graham Greene.

[Jackie Ballard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is not that gripping but I loved the descriptions of Havana and Varadero - really brought Cuba to life and revived memories of a great holiday which I had there.

[Debbie Kearns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave a good feel of Cuba, just got tired of the "love" story.

[David W. Berner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful story with one of the best two chapters of fiction I've read in a long time.

[AJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well-written story that vividly depicts Cuba, particularly Havana, during the late '80s. Its sensuous flair, the ribald night life and the despairing day life. And injected through that is a love story between Richard, a worldly and cynical New York photojournalist (age unspecified, but I thought probably mid-30s) and Lourdes, a very young and cynical but romantic Cubana who, like most every young person in Havana, seeks desperate escape from the island.

The love story was reasonably compelling, each one wary of the other, though it is Richard's perspective we always see, except for a couple of brief interludes where we suddenly get the POV of a stuffy and straight Brit whom Richard has befriended, Hugo. So the question through most of the story is will he or won't he (Richard) propose and try to get Lourdes out of the country? Is her love for him affected for that ulterior reason, or simply intertwined with it? And can Richard truly love? It's especially hard to tell about the latter because Richard reveals nothing about what draws him to Lourdes other than her physical appearance, so it's not clear whether this was a poorly illuminated character, or if Richard is simply that superficial when it comes to women (i.e., immature). I went with the latter, but was entirely certain.

Yep, like that. Meanwhile we get the political travelogue of Cuba playing in the background and foreground, again and again. And I think that's what hampered the book most: it felt like a short story that had been stretched to the length of a modest novel because much of the love story and the political and cultural backdrop felt quite repetitive at a certain point, one that was rather early.

Still, a decent read.

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd even go as high as a 3.25

Pico Iyer is a superb magazine and travel writer. Indeed, he's a superb writer period.

His prose is so fluid and gorgeous and the scenes of life in Cuba during the late 80s and 90s--where and when most of this book takes place--are arresting and always absorbing. But the central relationship on which the story is based, between a Canadian photographer who keeps coming back to the economically spiraling island and the young Cuban girl he finds himself inexorably attracted to is sadly, is simply less convincing.

The core of the plot: the world-traveling photographer can't decide if his Cuban girl actually cares about him or is more interested in his status as a meal and exit ticket out of Fidel's oppressive and impoverished country, and is thus unable to decide whether he should marry her or not.

Unfortunately, the major plot line is simply not as strong, nor nearly as compelling as Iyer's overview of the downward descent of Cuban society into greater extremes of poverty.

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having spent quite a lot of time in Cuba myself since 2011, I had always wondered what it was like during the time the Soviets inhabited the island. And this book certainly answered my questions. An unlikely love story unfolds against the backdrop of Castro's Cuba, taking place mostly in Havana but also exploring a bit of the outlying areas. The author is very familiar with the area and his descriptions are rich and atmospheric. I recommend this book to everyone who can relate to forbidden desires, intrigue and romance. It is an authentic treasure that holds a surprise.